Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Big nuclear safety drill scheduled for this week

Under the
guidance of the Ministry of Interior extensive safety drill will be executed in
the area of Bohunice Nuclear Power Plant. The exercise has been named Havran
(Corvus) and will take place on October 17th and 18th.

The goal of
the simulated accident is to practice and review response times, the state of
preparedness and the reactions of crisis committees at all levels, including selected
ministries, other state administration authorities, the regional state
administration and self-government authorities of the Trnava, Nitra and Trencin
regions. Various institutions, rescue forces of the integrated rescue system
and Slovenske elektrarne, a. s., the operator of the nuclear facility will be
involved when managing an emergency event.

Special
focus will be on the information flow from the nuclear facility up to the
ministries.

Around 1,100
employees of the Bohunice power plant and contracting companies as well as
further 1,500 people from institutions involved will participate.

The drill is
held pursuant to resolution No. 320/2011 of the Slovak government concerning
the process and results of the Fiftth assessment of the National Report of the
Slovak Republic under the Nuclear Safety Agreement.

Earthquake
reactions

Earthquake
with epicenter in the vicinity of Bohunice NPP is to be the initiating event for
the simulated accident resulting in rupture of the main pipes. Due to fast
progress a state of emergency will be announced in the area of nuclear
facility.

On
Wednesday morning approximately a 2-minute varied tone siren and
"Radiation danger alert" warning will sound in the NPP site. In the
area of 21 km around the power plant the sirens will be tested in a silent
mode.

The accident
will be identified as Level III without radiation consequences and with
expected shift to a phase of severe accident in 5 hours. Central crisis
committee will hold a meeting and recommend the government to announce state of
emergency in the whole territory of Slovakia.

Neighboring
countries, International Atomic Energy Agency and the European Commission will
be informed. An announcement for the public TV and radio station will also be
created, but not aired.

On Thursday
morning inhabitants of some villages will be evacuated. They will undergo a simulated
decontamination and purification process.

Costs: € 6000

Last
similar drill has been executed at the end of 1990´s. Observers from Austria,
Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine and Hungary have been invited. Follow-up assessment
and recommendations will be submitted to government for discussion.

The total
costs of 6000 euro have been earmarked from the budget of the interior ministry
and will be paid by the NPP operator and bodies of the integrated rescue system.